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Thursday, 5 November 2015

STUDENTS MUST LEAD THE STRUGGLE

In the
small absolute monarchy of Swaziland the struggle to get a decent education is
connected to the struggle for political freedom. Student activist Njabulo
Mazibuko has written about what implications this understanding has for himself
and his fellow students, writes
Kenworthy News Media.

“We are
not masters of our political fate, but slaves of circumstance. The paths of
rationality are blocked, and as students we all have to take responsibility for
addressing the political issues that are overlooked day after day”, Njabulo
Mazibuko writes in his essay, which is called The Need for More Student Activism.

“The
government is killing individuality and freedom of the mind compelling my
people more and more to conform to a similar pattern”, he says. “Democracy
stands as the only hope for my people today”.

More
student activism
Mazibuko is the outgoing President of the Swaziland National Union of Students
(SNUS). He is also a member of the Group of 15 that are presently trying to
initiate a process of dialogue with Swaziland’s absolute monarch King Mswati
III and his government.

He
finished his degree in BSc. Agriculture in early October and has been unemployed
since, along with over half the population. A situation that he feels will not
be likely to change under the present regime. Not least because he is an active
member of banned political party PUDEMO, and the Public Service Bill of 2015
clearly states that civil servants cannot be affiliated with political parties.

He has
written the political essay about what he sees as the need for more student
activism and an understanding of the importance of engaging politically, in a
country where political parties are illegal.

Fighting
submission and servitude
In Swaziland, education is tied to submission towards the king and his chief.

“In order
for a child to get education at tertiary level, he or she has to be submissive
to the traditional leaders; otherwise that child may not get his or her
scholarship form signed”, says Njabulo Mazibuko.

“The
ruling regime in Swaziland has utterly failed to make politics attractive to
the youth, but as students we all have to take responsibility for addressing
political issue. For the price we pay for not understanding politics is
servitude to others or to circumstances”.

And
circumstances for the vast majority of Swazis are very grim indeed, says
Mazibuko.

“The
dictator has been constantly employing the same tactics from time to time in
the country which are arrests, detentions and torture, threats and sanctions.
The regime will use police, prisons and army to maintain silence which they
call order or peace and in all respects it constitutes a dictatorship. This is
the basis for the struggle facing the student activist in Swaziland today”.

Inspiration
begins at home
Students and student organisations such as SNUS have often been catalysts for
change. An obvious example is that of the South African Students’ Organisation,
important as both an ideological and practical precursor for Steve Biko’s
highly influential Black Consciousness movement.

Mazibuko’s
inspirations are closer to home, however.

“The
Secretary General of the Swaziland Youth Congress [and former President of SNUS]
comrade Maxwell Dlamini is my first source of inspiration. I first visited him
at Sdwashini Prison where he was incarcerated for sedition in 2012. His
incredible commitment and will to sacrifice for the struggle was and is an
inspiration indeed”.

Students
must lead the struggle
But even though Swaziland has many young activists, such as Maxwell Dlamini,
who have been ready to risk tear gas, rubber bullets, torture and even death to
forward the struggle for democracy in Swaziland, Njabulo Mazibuko believes that
the youth of Swaziland in general have some way to go, before they can be a
catalyst of change.

“The most
depoliticized group is the youth, hence the need to sharpen that through
student activism. The youth hide under the influence of liquor and the use of
gadgets for social or cyber politics. The situation is very discouraging
because they are supposed to be the architects of the future of the country”,
he says.

The
dismal alternative to action and activism is the present system of inequality,
poverty and a political system and society which instils fear with repression
and at the same time “punishes originality or humanity and starves imagination
from the moment of first going to school to the time of burial”, says Mazibuko.

The Swazi
students must therefore resist and actively fight what he calls the
brainwashing of the regime.

“Let every student activist lead the struggle”, as Njabulo Mazibuko concludes
his essay.